Who We Are

At the Malpa Project we work together using old ways and new ways to teach young Aboriginal people to become health ambassadors and to strengthen communities.

DIRECTORS

DON PALMER ThL, MA

Don’s connection with aboriginal people goes back to the early days of the Land Rights movement when he produced some of the earliest television programs dealing with this fundamental issue. Since then he has been involved at many levels and travelled the nation in effort to support Indigenous Australians including acting as a consultant to a major Federal Government Indigenous men’s health project. He is a keynote speaker on Aboriginal health in a wide variety of forums. He has worked on a range of projects with NSW Aboriginal Land Council in communities across the state. Don acts as a cultural advisor the Noetic Group and Equbed.

Don is a member of the advisory group for the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission and has worked in health promotion for the NSW Department of Health. He spent several years on the ABC’s NSW Advisory Board and as an academic training some of Australia’s most prominent media personalities and journalists. He is a Winston Churchill Fellow and holds a Master of Arts in Mass Communication. As a documentary film maker he was winner of a United Nations Media Peace Prize and acts as a provider of media training to the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and the board of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council. He recently joined the Board of the Children’s Global Hygiene Foundation.

He’s known in Central Australia as Tjungurrayi and Wotama in recognition of his strong connection with Aboriginal people.

MAJOR GENERAL (Retd) PETER DUNN, AO

Peter has had a considerable connection with Indigenous Australians including overseeing a federal review of Indigenous men’s health.

Peter specializes in capacity building and the development of resilience in individuals, organisations and communities. He has experience in the public sector as a very senior Army officer and as a civilian Agency Head. Peter also has experience in the private sector as a CEO and has worked on capacity building projects in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand and has undertaken development work in the South Pacific. He is currently delivering programs in AusAID preparing people for overseas deployments and is also developing sustainable small business in PNG. Peter is an experienced public policy developer at both the state and federal levels.

DAVID PEAKE ThL, Grad Dip Rel Ed, OAM

David has more than twenty years experience working with disadvantaged and disengaged Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people in communities including Fitzroy, West Heidelberg, Braybrook and Broadmeadows. David is the CEO of EQubed which creates educational and employment pathways for disengaged youth using social enterprise as a key model. He has been a probation officer, a youth liaison officer, counselor, football coach, hospital chaplain, street worker for the homeless, a drug and alcohol worker, trauma consultant, counselling coordinator, grief consultant, family counselor and industrial chaplain, not to mention an Anglican parish priest in some of Melbourne’s most disadvantaged areas.

As an industrial chaplain David provided trauma counselling after the Hoddle Street shooting, the Queen Street shooting, the explosion and fire at the Altona Petrochemical Company and at the Russell Street bombing. He was a Trauma Management Consultant to the Country Fire Authority and was awarded an Order of Australia medal for his community work with the disadvantaged.

REX GRANITES JAPANANGKA

Rex Granites Japanangka is a Senior Warlpiri Elder and law keeper. His involvement with Malpa goes back to its inception and he was responsible for selecting the name of the organisation. Rex has been deeply involved in community capacity building and conflict resolution in the Northern Territory and South Australia. He has worked as a senior educator, was chair of the Central Land Council and a delegate at a range of national and international conferences. Rex has been our Northern Territory Project Director since Malpa’s inception and works as an itinerant preacher and university lecturer. He holds a B Ed and is soon to be awarded a Masters of Arts for his seminal work on Warlpiri culture. He is also a noted artist.

Professor MICHELLE TRUDGETT- BA, MPS, EdD

Professor Michelle Trudgett is an Indigenous scholar from the Wiradjuri Nation in New South Wales. Michelle holds the positions Professor of Indigenous Education and Director of the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges at the University of Technology Sydney. Prior to this she was employed at the Head of Warawara — Department of Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University. Michelle has developed an international reputation as a leading Indigenous Australian scholar whose research provides considerable insight into the area of Indigenous participation in higher education, with a specific focus on the postgraduate sector. Michelle is a member of the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).

SONIA WATERS

Sonia is an Aboriginal woman from Adelaide, South Australia. Her ancestral lines were broken through the forced removal of her great-grandmother from the Far West Coast of South back in the early 1900s. Sadly, her Nana and Mother were also removed and they too spent their formative years cycling through institutions and foster care placements. Sonia’s career spans 26 years in the South Australian Public Sector, 16 of those were in Aboriginal Health where she provided leadership in Aboriginal Health Workforce Development. During this time Sonia established the SA Aboriginal Health Scholarship Program and partnered with Rotary Australia to establish the Australian Rotary Health Scholarship Program which is now a national program. Sonia is currently the Director of Aboriginal Services in AnglicareSA. Prior to joining AnglicareSA, she was the Director of Community Engagement in the former Social Inclusion Unit, Department of the Premier and Cabinet and had carriage of the Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing Reference. During that role, she was instrumental in establishing the Spirit Festival, South Australia’s annual Aboriginal Cultural Festival and provided high level strategic advice on economic disadvantage, homelessness, school retention, mental health and serious repeat offending. Sonia has served on many boards and committees and is currently a Board Member of the Don Dunstan Foundation, the South Australian Aboriginal Advisory Council and is Chair of Anglicare Australia’s National Reconciliation Network. She holds an Advanced Diploma in Community Services Management.

LUKE CARROLL

Luke is a renowned, multi-award winning Indigenous actor who has had a long association with Malpa. He has travelled Australia and as a Wiradjuri man experienced a diverse range of Indigenous communities and brings a wealth of knowledge about health projects and a passion to bring about change.

PROJECT TEAM

SAMMI FATNOWNA

Sammi Fatnowna is Malpa’s National Project Manager. Sammi coordinates the roll out of the Young Doctor projects to communities Australia wide. She supports staff to prepare, plan and deliver the projects.

Sammi is a Teacher by profession with over 20 years of experience. This has enabled her to work on a range of projects and develop contacts in various organisations over the years. Experiences have ranged from teaching in the central desert country of Western Australia to casual teaching in London, UK. She has spent the last few years in the Kempsey area of New South Wales.

Having mainly taught Aboriginal students over the years, Sammi became passionate and extremely knowledgeable about Ear Health Education support. This led Sammi to become involved in itinerant support teaching hearing. Initially this was with caseload students and for the last nine years it has been with Community Education around conductive hearing loss. Good Health and a good all round educational environment is something Sammi aspires to with her students.

GARTH FATNOWNA

After years as project manager in Dunghutti Country, Garth has moved to being a strong “Uncle” to all our team. Garth is of Aboriginal and Islander SSI descent and brings a wealth of experience to this position.

He is an Infants Primary Teacher who has worked in a variety of schools and settings over his 20 year career. He has also held high consultancy positions in TAFE and education departments over the years. He is also Malpa’s Project Manager, Sammi’s husband. After a period of bad health, Garth is now embracing his position and inspiring the young Dhalayi Doctors throughout the Kempsey region.

GLORIA TAYLOR

Gloria Taylor brings a special energy and enthusiasm to her work as a Leader of the Kempsey projects. Although she was born in Sydney she is a Dhungutti woman who is a Mother, Grandmother and Aunty to many in her community. Gloria has worked with State Rail, in childcare, as a teacher’s aide and even as a Nutritional Practitioner. She is never short of a good yarn and wherever Gloria can be found there is laughter. All that experience and her practical love of young people makes her work with the Dhalayi Doctors a rich experience for everyone involved.

Boori Doctors Yuin Country – Berkeley West

Hannah Croese

Ashleigh Morgan

Ngargin Doctors Yuin Country – Barrack Heights

Chris Mangos

Troy Tungai

Aunty Pattie

Veronica Archibald

Bubup Doctors Wurundjeri Country, Melbourne

Shara Graham

Melanie Harrison

Dhalayi Doctors Dunghutti Country, Kempsey

Rosie Fatnowa

Gloria Taylor

Wakwakko Doctors Kaurna Country, South Australia

Michelle Bilney

Lauren Jew

Boori Doctors Yuin Country – Albion Park Rail

YOUNG DOCTORS
Young Doctors is a health leadership program which trains Indigenous and Non-indigenous young people to be health ambassadors in their communities. It is designed and run by local Elders, respected community members and supported by health workers in each location. The program teaches leadership, hygiene, health literacy, nutrition and environmental health. This year about 400 Young Doctors will be trained in NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland. The project is entirely funded by generous private foundations, corporations and individuals